In a way, I suppose this applies to myself, the author, as it does to my story. I've had a difficult time finding the inspiration and drive to continue this. I have ideas, but they're difficult to connect together. So far, though, I think I'm doing OK, even if I'm a bit slow. I've got an idea to help those who may be irritated with my slow productivity, though. See the end of this chapter for details...
I don't own DBZ, but I do own my own car...
The First Step
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
~ Lao Tzu
Here was the place.
It was difficult to recognize without the wholesale destruction that had filled it when they were last here. Had Gohan been with them, he would have recognized it immediately as part of the area that Piccolo had left him to train himself for six months.
It was also the place where the three humans, with Gohan and Piccolo, had tried to take on two Elite Saiyans without Goku . . . And failed.
When Tien had first brought them here, it had awakened a deep unease in Krillen. One he had a difficult time quantifying. Glancing at Yamcha, he could see that same expression in the former bandit's eyes. Tien eyed them for a few moments, then asked a deceptively simple question.
"Tell me, what kind of feelings does this place awaken in you?"
A moment passed, then Yamcha spoke. "I remember this place. We fought the Saiyans here. I remember . . . " He pointed at a nearby crater, grown over by grass, but just visible, " . . . that was where I got killed by one of those stupid Saibamen. I've never been here since then. Looking at the damage, even grown over, I can tell it was a hell of a fight."
Krillen was still quiet. Slowly, he walked to a near bottomless hole, now, apparently, a permanent fixture on the planet now. Krillen remembered how this had been made, but Tien did the explaining for Yamcha, who had already been dead when this happened.
"I remember this hole. It's one of the last things I remember, actually, before the shock of having my arm chopped off set in. I think you, Krillen, were trying to dive in to save me from the other Saiyan, the big one, when he did this. Stupid, really. I should have listened to Piccolo and ducked instead of blocked. I thought I could take it, though . . . "
Krillen also remembered Tien, knew there was more to that story. Remembered Choutzu sacrificing himself to no effect. Remembered the blind rage that compelled Tien to avenge that noble, but futile act, and to follow his friend into the jaws of death with a matching, utterly useless attempt at vengeance . . .
Finally, Krillen chose to talk. "Right as you died, Tien, seeing you expend every effort, every bit of what you had to take down that Saiyan . . . Nappa, wasn't it? ... I remember feeling completely overwhelmed, out of my depth. We were the best Earth had to offer, and it just didn't matter for beans. Even Piccolo, who I thought could stand as firm as Goku against these monsters, fell before them. We tried so hard, worked so much. And we couldn't even take down one of them."
"Thankfully, Goku showed up." Yamcha said, though it wasn't with any great cheer, the point beginning to sink in for him, too.
"Exactly," Tien said, walking away from the hole. "From then on, we were negligible. Insignificant. No counts." He let that hang in the air for a moment before continuing. "I remember training at King Kai's, thinking, that with the training of the highest god of this side of the universe, we could all be as strong as Goku was. We knew there was no way he could match Frieza, but maybe, with all of us there, we could make a difference."
"But he found a way." Krillen said, softly.
"Exactly!" Tien said, excited now. "He found a way. He became a Super Saiyan. When the androids arrived, and we were all beaten down by them, what happened? Piccolo found a way."
"He merged with Kami."
"And became much, much stronger. And took care of them easily. When Cell showed up, the Saiyans went into the Room of Spirit and Time to get stronger, to beat him. To save the world."
"Our world." Yamcha mouthed.
"My question is, why didn't we even try to help? We could have used the room just as they did. We could have trained hard, pushed our limits. At least, we could have tried!"
"Here was where the Saiyans truly beat us. I can accept that, now. At the Cell games, though, we just gave up. We gave the responsibility to someone else. Is that right?"
Krillen thought that Tien was proselytizing, simply being dramatic. That last question, though, said so plaintively, told the truth. This was a personal demon haunting him. Tien had been an assassin, a taker of lives. He had reformed, though, and joined the good guys. Tien had always been a little more reckless than the others, though, sometimes a little too willing to commit his life to the flames, to go out in a blaze of glory. He did it with Nappa. He nearly did it with Cell, stalling him so he couldn't get to Android 18, an effort rendered futile by yet another Saiyan, Vegeta. Tien desperately wanted that chance, it seemed, to prove himself, to show that he truly could be a hero, that he was committed to saving lives rather than taking them.
But how can you do that when you have super heroes cornering the market in that business?
All was silent for a moment, then Yamcha spoke.
"The funny thing is, we're not that weak. Each of us could probably give Frieza a run for his money nowadays." He said with a wry chuckle. "Krillen, do you remember the Grand Kai planet?"
"Yeah, why do you ask?"
"You remember King Kai wanting us there, to train? In case Buu killed everybody else defending Earth?" Not waiting for an answer, Yamcha went on, "I do. I also remember facing some of those guys in the afterlife, warriors that had dedicated their eternities to training and the constant improvement of themselves. You know what surprised me the most about that?"
"No, what?" Krillen asked, genuinely curious.
"We ranked. We were matches for most of them. Two pitiful warriors from Earth could meet the best of worlds all over the galaxy, and still hold their own. I'd given up on training, actually, before Buu arrived. Honestly, I think I gave it up right after Cell. It just seemed pointless. We'd work hard, and we never got to do anything. Not that we'd have done any good if we did. There, though, I saw that we didn't have anything to be ashamed of. We could take our place with the best of the universe. It's not our fault that we got stuck with the last of the Living Legends. Knowing that now, I feel like I need to do something a bit more deserving of the power I've been gifted with . . . well, besides being a baseball celebrity, anyway." He laughed at that, the chuckle sounding much more mirthful this time.
"Well, OK. I think I see your point now, Tien." Krillen spoke, his voice thoughtful. "But I fail to see what, exactly, you want us to do with you. We can train and become stronger, yes. We're almost as strong as Goku when he first reached Super Saiyan. We might even be able to surpass that. But what then? The Saiyans become far more powerful than that, now. Even if we could somehow find a transformation or power up, they've still got that level two and three. I might accept us being able to find one, but two or more? That seems a bit farfetched . . .
"You misunderstand me, Krillen." Tien said, his voice sounding like he already had this discussion with himself before. "I don't think there's any possible way we can match the Saiyans at their current power. I'm not looking to beat them, anyway. However, that doesn't mean we can't test the full measure of our capabilities and use them to at least help the next time something appears. I don't want to be useless again. I don't have to win, but I at least want to make a difference next time. That's what I'm shooting for."
They pondered that for a few moments, while Tien rummaged in his pocket for something. Finding it, he revealed a capsule, one of the most ubiquitous, and indispensable technological innovations of the last century. Capable of holding just about anything in a small, portable form, few people knew exactly how they worked. Probably no one did whose last name wasn't Briefs. Something about folding pocket dimensions or something like that, to avoid the whole mass issue, since you didn't want to have to carry the equivalent weight of an entire Gravity Room with you, no matter how portable the size . . .
Speaking of Gravity Rooms, it's interesting to note that, when Tien activated the capsule and tossed it, what should come out but a large version of the Gravity Room that Vegeta used in his own personal training. Krillen and Yamcha looked on, a combination of surprise and a little fear. Yamcha had more to fear, though. He remembered, sometime during the three-year period before the androids arrived, he'd foolishly tried to use Vegeta's version of the GR at his training settings. Unfortunately, 350 times Earth normal gravity was simply too much for his body at the time. Thankfully, he still had the energy to turn the thing off before he turned himself into a bloody smear. He'd never trusted high gravity training since.
Krillen looked on with a sense of apprehension, but for different reasons. It was one thing for him to train with weighted clothing, to accept power ups from total strangers, and take lessons from some of the greatest martial arts masters of the universe. For some reason, though, using an obvious technological means of training stuck in his craw a little. It felt a bit like . . . cheating.
A hand came down on his shoulder. "I know how you feel, Krillen." said Tien. "I've got the same misgivings about it. Must be something we inherited from our masters. I've thought about it a lot, though, and there's no way around it. High gravity training is probably the best, most efficient way to increase your ambient strength. It forces you to have to maintain a high power level and peak physical condition just to stay alive in it. It's also how the Saiyans first started their rise to power. I think we need this."
Yamcha had a different question. "How did you get this so fast, Tien? I don't remember much about what went into these things, but I know these puppies don't come quick, cheap or easy."
"Well, it's a bit more than just a gravity room, Yamcha. It's also a star ship. Apparently, after Namek, Bulma tinkered a lot with the Saiyan space pod designs that she already had, and built an extra star ship just in case we needed to leave the planet for an emergency again. Apparently, these gravity rooms come standard with it. Something about maintaining equilibrium and bone growth on extended voyages, I don't pretend to understand everything Bulma says, though. The point is, it's a fully functional gravity room, up to 600 g's. Vegeta trains at about 500-550, so I think our first goal is to shoot for that."
"Are you crazy?!" Krillen gasped when he heard that. "We'd never survive anything that intense!"
"Right now, no, we can't." Tien said, a slight scowl on his face. "Something tells me, though, that we can, if we work toward that slowly, and don't exert ourselves too much. Don't forget, there was a time when we could keep pace with the Saiyans, albeit a couple of steps behind, but we got there. Vegeta trains in this in his base form. I think we can at least do that. Or are you two not prepared to see what we can really do?" With that, Tien stalked slowly and deliberately toward the pod, apparently eager to begin.
Yamcha looked after the triclops with a measure of shock. His pride began to make its voice heard, though, and soon, he screwed up his face and followed his comrade in, leaving Krillen the only one outside.
The short statured monk looked up into the sky, twilight beginning to set in, knowing that, back home, sunset was still a few hours away. Nonetheless, he looked up at the first, twinkling stars as they began to sparkle in the fading light, hoping, in a foolish romantic way that had nothing to do with reason, that Eighteen was looking up there, too. I'm sorry, love, he thought to his love, knowing she couldn't really feel him, this may take a little longer than I thought. But I have to do this. I have to know. I know you'll understand. Closing his eyes and breathing deeply for a moment, he emptied his mind, and let the sound of the universe around pass through him. When he exhaled, his worries, doubts and fears evaporated . . . at least for now.
With that, Krillen walked toward the chamber, wondering about what lay ahead . . .
Author's Note:
I know this is shorter than the other few chapters, but I felt this was a good stopping point. Given my (obviously) infrequent updates regarding this story, I thought it might be best if I started a mailing list for all those who are interested in keeping up with this narrative. Given that it seems to take me a few months to churn out each part of the story, I thought this might keep me from losing any prospective fans and give me a chance to start my own fan club ;-)
Seriously, though, I think this might be a good idea just so that I don't feel bad that I'm selling my audience short by taking my time. I know it can be a pain to check ff.net every few days to see if your favorite fics have been updated, so I thought I'd see how this would fly. If you are interested, contact me at bonzo_the_fifth@yahoo.com. Who knows, I may even ask for opinions or help sometime, if I like you ;-)